


Equal & Opposite Reactions

by Xanthos_Samurai



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Cannibalism, Explicit Language, Gen, M/M, Mad Science, Medical Experimentation, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-26 02:00:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4985713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xanthos_Samurai/pseuds/Xanthos_Samurai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xigbar, Xaldin, and Vexen wish to explore the scientific relationship between Nobody and Other, specifically between Sora and Roxas.  Unfortunately, their experimentation has horrific outcomes for everyone involved.  </p><p>Written pre-BBS and DDD for a squick challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Equal & Opposite Reactions

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written quite a long time ago on LiveJournal and I've only just recently been motivated to move it here.

 

            The subjects were almost depressingly easy to obtain.  There was a possibility that this disappointed Vexen – after all, there was something to be said for the thrill of capturing your prey – but any disappointment he felt was far outweighed by the excitement of being able to commence procedures.  Experimentation had been what Even had lived for while a human at Radiant Garden.  The loss of his heart and subsequent transubstantiation of his body into Vexen had changed little about what pleased him. 

            Because Vexen himself had been deeply preoccupied in making the necessary preparations, Xigbar and Xaldin had gone to catch the subjects.  The habit of referring to the object of experimentation as “the subject” was one that Vexen had acquired in life.  It was an idiom of science, for one thing.  For another, it had been a method by which he could harden himself to performing sometimes cruel experiments on living things.  By reducing these living things to merely “subjects,” it became easier to do the things he did.  Despite the fact that he now had no heart and was therefore incapable of feeling anything towards the beings he experimented on, Vexen retained the phrase out of habit. 

            “I’m disappointed, Vexen.”  Xigbar returned first.  His quarry was tucked casually under one arm, limp and unconscious.  “You made it sound as if Sora was going to be the harder one to catch.  This was easier than taking potshots off lost kids in Traverse Town.”

            “I trust you didn’t damage the subject?”  Vexen barely glanced up from his notes. 

            “Nope.  I’m waitin’ my turn.”  The Freeshooter dumped the unconscious boy on one of two stainless steel operating tables that were placed side-by-side in the middle of the room.  He sat on one of the counters and looked at Sora with a gaze that wasn’t made any less intense by the absence of one eye.  “…He looks awful yummy, though…”

            “Is the subject thoroughly unconscious?”  No longer occupied with his notes, Vexen walked briskly over to the table.  “It would be inconvenient if he woke in the middle of the procedures.”

            “Dontcha trust me?”  Xigbar grinned over at the Chilly Academic, who gave Xigbar a look that would have been hard-pressed to be more frigid.  Laughing, Xigbar rocked back and forth on the table.  “Smart choice.”

            “Only a fool would trust any of us, but not even a fool would trust you,” said Vexen.

            “That’s a fine way to speak to someone who is doing you a favor.” 

            The harsh, low growl of Xaldin’s voice was unmistakable.  Just as Xigbar had done a short while earlier, he stood in the doorway of the laboratory with a boy under one arm.  However, this boy was fully conscious and very much struggling against his captor.

            “What the hell is going on here?!  Xaldin, you bastard, what are you doing to me?!  Let me go right now!”  Despite all his struggling, XIII remained firmly within Xaldin’s grasp. 

            “Some favor.”  Vexen looked coldly put out.  “I thought I asked for him to be subdued and unharmed, Xaldin.”

            “I couldn’t subdue him without putting a big hole in his head.  I could only assume you’d prefer him intact over unconscious.”  Xaldin raised a brow at Vexen, daring him to protest further.

            IV shrugged.  “Xigbar, if you would be so kind.”

            “I’ve been wantin’ to do this a long time,” grinned Xigbar.  He hopped off the counter and walked over to Xaldin and Roxas.

            Roxas’ eyes widened as Xigbar advanced.  He had no idea what was happening or what was about to happen.  A figure, familiar though Roxas was sure he had never seen it before was in a heap on an operating table.  His blue eyes widened.

            “Is that Sora?!  What is Sora doing here?!  What the fuck are you doing?!”  His voice rose hysterically, nearly to the point of screaming. 

            “Shut him up already,” snarled Xaldin.  His grasp on the boy was slipping as Roxas’ struggles for freedom became increasingly frantic. 

            In life, Braig’s scientific specialty had been the nervous system, mainly concentrated on the effects of sensory deprivation.  He’d made an extensive study of pressure points in the body and knew more about physical weaknesses and strengths than the rest of them.  It was a simple matter of pressing          two fingers on a certain spot on Roxas’ neck.  The boy went limp and sagged against Xaldin’s arms.

            “Place him on the other table,” commanded Vexen.  The lancer did so, arranging both Roxas and Sora so that they were both stretched out on the tables on their backs.  Having the two of them side-by-side in such close proximity made the numerous similarities between them all the more apparent. 

            “Such a unique opportunity to study the relationship between Nobody and Other,” Vexen breathed.  For the first time, his voice rang of something other than apathy.  A slight note of fanaticism had snuck in.  “This is the first time that it’s ever been possible to perform an experiment of this nature.”

            “So what’s the plan?”  Xigbar resumed his seat on the counter, content to just sit and watch the proceedings.  As far as he was concerned, his part in this operation had been carried out.  All that was left was for him to sit back and wait to reap the rewards. 

            “The plan is,” Vexen paused, readying a tray of tools.  “Xaldin, as the most skilled surgeon, is going to perform the actual proceedings and I’m going to supervise.  _You’re_ going to keep your hands out of the way.”

            “As long as you give me what you promised, I’ll be quieter than an Assassin.”  Xigbar reached for a scalpel and began to idly carve designs into his coat. 

            “Humph.  Speaking of which…”  IV turned to his dreadlocked associate.  “Did you take precautions for VIII?  This procedure is going to take some time and there’s no doubt that that conniving nitwit is going to wonder where XIII is.”

            Xaldin nodded curtly.  “It’s taken care of.  He thinks that Roxas is exploring worlds or some such nonsense and has no doubt gone off to look for him.” 

            “Good.  That would have been the last thing we needed.”  Satisfied, Vexen turned back to his two subjects – the brown-haired Other and his blonde Nobody.  Strange, they looked almost peaceful lying there side by side.  In another time, another place, they could have been brothers asleep together after a long day of sunshine and making happy memories. 

            But no.  They were not anything as romantic or sentimental as brothers.  Sora and Roxas were fragments of the same person – two fragments who had been violently ripped apart and must inexorably be rejoined.  It was the goal of all Nobodies.  In actuality, XIII should be honored that he was the first of all of them to get the chance.

            “Sora is to be known henceforth as Other and Roxas as Nobody,” said Vexen.  He opened a thick book full of handwritten notes and diagrams.  “After removing all clothing, the first incisions are to be identical – starting just above the navel and extending upwards in a straight line to the bottom of the ribcage.”

            The operation proceeded that way for quite some time.  Vexen would call out instructions to Xaldin, who would execute them with hands made swift and sure by years of practice.  Although his desire to join in the fun and games was painfully apparent, Xigbar kept his word and remained on the counter, though he fidgeted constantly. 

            Differences between the two bodies had been in Vexen’s hypotheses, of course, but the degree of difference surprised even him.  Being a Nobody and thus lacking a heart, Roxas had no blood.  Organs lay fully formed within his stomach and chest, but were completely dry.  Dry and cold.  Compared to the slick, wet, warm innards within Sora, it was as if he was made of paper.

            “What’re you gonna do with those guts?”  Xigbar leaned forward and twisted his hands in Xaldin’s dreadlocks, sliding them through his fingers as if pretending they were the intestines that he so wanted to play with. 

            Without even looking back at his lover, Xaldin lifted one of the long organs coiled neatly on the stainless steel table beside Sora’s unconscious body and tossed it back at him.  The Freeshooter snatched it out of thin air and held it to his lips.  With a grin of absolute delight, he began to devour it, slurping it down his throat like noodles.  When he was done, blood ringed his mouth and stained his fingers and teeth, making his appearance all the more demonic.

            “Give me something with bones next,” he leaned forward and kissed Xaldin’s jaw from behind, a hand sneaking around the lancer’s waist. 

            “Stop interfering,” Vexen said icily.  “Don’t distract him.”

            “Oh, Xally can handle a lot more distraction than this and still keep his focus, trust me.”  Xigbar bit Xaldin’s ear and smirked at Vexen.  “Look at his hands.  Still as steady as anything.”

            “I don’t care.  Get off.”  Vexen stooped and picked up a severed right hand – Sora’s – and tossed it at Xigbar.  “Here.  Occupy yourself with that.” 

            Xigbar didn’t need to be told twice.  He sucked on the fingers first, savoring the taste of old sweat mingled with the revenant tang of metal left by the keyblade’s hilt.  Oh, but under all of it was still the part that Xigbar craved most – the flesh and blood.  He’d never tasted Sora before.  In fact, he’d never really even considered the possibility of consuming the boy, but now he wondered why.  If he had known how delectable the boy’s flesh tasted, he would have had a much harder time bringing him back to Vexen in one piece. 

            As Xigbar occupied himself in methodically and gleefully eating the hand and spitting the bones out into a growing pile on the floor, Xaldin was reaching an end to his own endeavors.  As per Vexen’s instructions, both Nobody and Other were now both severed down the middle, each half-person in two halves themselves. It was a strange and bizarre representation of duplicity – four quarters of one person lying exposed on stainless-steel tables, their intimate workings wrenched open for all the world to see.  Roxas was still as clean and dead as a cut-open doll, but Sora was nothing but red and yellow and horror and gore.  Blood dripped off the edges of the table and fell in long ribbon strands to the floor.  Xaldin stepped into this puddle of life thoughtlessly and his boots left bright red treaded patterns on the white floor as he circled the tables. 

            Vexen assisted Xaldin in placing one half of each subject aside and, using his own special power, froze them.  They only needed one half of each for this particular experiment, yes, but there was no point in wasting specimens.  It was clear that Xigbar would have preferred it if the discarded corpse halves had been entrusted to him to dispose of, but he was satisfied with the several bits of flesh and meat that Xaldin had tossed him over the course of the operation.

            “The next order of business is the real part of the experiment.”  Vexen turned to the Freeshooter and the lancer after he’d frozen the remaining halves.  “We have successfully created the components for a new, whole being.  With these remaining halves, we shall attempt to fuse them together to create what we hope will be a whole person that isn’t Nobody or Other, but both.”

 

-

 

            Xaldin straightened, scowling as his spine popped a half-dozen times.  Hunching over a table for such an extended period of time wasn’t exactly the most comfortable of activities, but he loved it just the same.  Looking back down at the hundreds of tiny stitches he had just made – the straight serrated line that neatly bisected the two halves of the unnatural body that lay on the table – Xaldin fancied that he could feel a strong surge of accomplishment and pride.  And maybe even a little fondness. 

            It was a beautiful sight, as far as macabre images go.  Xaldin didn’t consider himself an _artiste_ like Demyx or (perish the thought) Marluxia, but he definitely had a certain _appreciation_ for the aesthetically pleasing.  Even when it was something like a beautifully stitched-together corpse, Xaldin could appreciate it.

            That was one of the advantages of being without a heart, Xaldin had supposed before.  One could look upon things and simply admire the aesthetics of them without emotions coming into the frame and complicating the issue.  For example, when he had been Dilan, he would have been unable to enjoy Xigbar’s unique sense of... fun.  At least, not without emotions such as _revulsion_ or _horror_ getting in the way. 

            This half-hearted creature, pieced together with rows upon rows of neat black stitches, was beautiful.  The inner workings of a body, visible beneath a thin, easily removable layer of skin, were beautiful.  A splash of red blood across a green field bathed in moonlight, the remains of a young woman with a hole where her heart had once been – a result of Xigbar’s “tendencies.”  That too was beautiful. 

            “It’s time to commence the next phase.” 

            The mechanical lack of tone in Vexen’s voice efficiently scattered Xaldin’s reverie to the far corners of the lab.  Everything about Vexen was efficient, including his interruptions. 

            “I’ve always wondered what Keyblader heart tastes like…” 

            Xigbar’s quiet musings provided a soft, if disturbing background murmur to the work that Xaldin and Vexen carried out.  Neither of them acknowledged him, even though he was crouched on the table beside the newly-created body.  Xaldin was well aware that he could get Xigbar down on the floor and away from the body before Xigbar would have time to react.  Normally, Xigbar was far too fast, but as long as he was in this state…  Xaldin had the advantage.   The two subjects, Roxas and Sora, had been neatly bisected and then rejoined according to Vexen’s notes.  Up to this point, everything had gone smoothly – even Xigbar was behaving himself.  But the operations had really only just begun. 

            “I hope you had a brilliant idea regarding how we’re going to wake it up,” growled Xaldin.  “As far as I’m concerned, I’m done with this experiment of yours.”

            “You agreed to provide your services for the entirety of the procedure.”  Vexen looked severely at Xaldin over the top of a clipboard. 

            “I never said I was going to leave,” said Xaldin.

            “We can’t leave now, Xally.”  Xigbar suddenly appeared just behind Xaldin.  A bloody scalpel was casually twirled between his fingers as he spoke.  “Aren’t you curious?  You can’t just leave in the middle without seeing the outcome.  Your curiosity will drive you _crazy_.”

            “If you haven’t driven me crazy by now, Xigbar, nothing will.”  Xaldin’s snarl was thicker than usual.  Probably because he didn’t want to admit that Xigbar was, infuriatingly enough, absolutely correct. 

            “Enough.  If we’re going to conduct this experiment, let’s do it now.  Our chances for success are higher if the bodies are still fresh.”  Vexen walked over to the two tables.  Almost with admiration, he looked down at the subject. 

            Xaldin had done an excellent job – you would have thought that the subject had been whole originally if you disregarded the stitches and the fact that the hair, eyes and skintone varied slightly.  Fascinating, yes, but also inconsequential.  What mattered was that the bodies had fit together perfectly. 

            “So what’s the plan?  You gonna zap ‘em?  You know that I prefer my meat raw, but I don’t mind it being heated up.  We could get Larxene in here – I’m sure she’d love an excuse to electrocute the piss outta something.” 

            The crudeness of Xigbar’s language would probably have annoyed Vexen under normal circumstances, but today was different.  It was too important.

            “No.  XII’s assistance is not necessary in this instance.  I have procured another method for revitalizing the subject.”  Vexen now went into a supply closet adjacent to the room.  He returned a moment later with a stainless steel tray upon which rested a syringe filled with glowing white-gold liquid.

            “What is that, Vexen?”  Xaldin eyed the syringe mistrustfully.   
  
            “Essence of Kingdom Hearts.”

            Xaldin started and turned to stare at Vexen through narrowed eyes.

            “You’re out of your mind.”  He stated flatly. 

            Shivers ran up and down Xigbar’s spine, but not shivers of fear.  Shivers of anticipation.  Or delight.  Or madness.  Hell, it didn’t matter – it all amounted to the same thing.  He peered over Xaldin’s and dug his long, bloodstained fingers into the lancer’s shoulders.

            “I want to see it…”  He breathed.

            “No.  Get back on the counter.  You promised you’d behave.  If you don’t, you get no more treats.”

            The temptation of a potential feast of human and Nobody flesh was enough to make Xigbar stop.  His mind was struggling, boiling inside his head like magma.  It was difficult to stay good.  So difficult.  Even when Xaldin promised treats.  And maybe even fucking later, if he really behaved.  Or if Xaldin got desperate.  Xigbar started to grin.  No, stay focused.  It took all his effort to sit back on the counter and be still.  A slim white bone from a finger still rested in a sticky pool of blood.  Xigbar began to chew on it with zeal, more to keep his mind occupied than anything. 

            The needle slid into the creature’s arm smoothly.  Vexen injected it into the left arm – Sora’s arm.  If his calculations were correct, the blood from Sora’s body would flow into Roxas’, carrying the essence of Kingdom Hearts with it. 

            Vexen’s hypothesis proved correct.  Almost before he had pulled the needle from the skin, the creature on the table began to stir.  It began with a twitch in the fingers and spread quickly over the rest of the body, like a flame devouring a piece of paper.  A low moan escaped the newly reanimated lips. 

            “Nnngh…  What’s going on…?” 

            To the fascination of the three Nobodies, the voice in which the creature spoke alternated between Roxas’ and Sora’s.  It was strange, but it also proved that this thing that they had created was a perfect combination of Sora and Roxas.

            Xaldin suddenly became aware of Xigbar’s breathing, which had suddenly become short and ragged.  He tore his eyes away from the creature and looked over his shoulder to see the Freeshooter crouched on the counter.  A strange light was gleaming in his remaining eye and every muscle was straining towards the creature on the table.

            “Don’t you dare.”  Xaldin hissed from between clenched teeth.  He reached out to collar Xigbar, but the quicker man flickered back.  A mad grin stretched across Xigbar’s face and his knuckles where white from gripping the edge of the counter. 

            “He smells really, really good…”

            “Xigbar, I will fucking kill you.”  Xaldin heard another moan behind him and resisted the urge to turn around and look. 

            Xigbar tore his gaze from the creature and grinned at Xaldin.  His one eye gleamed unnaturally bright. 

            “We’re already dead, don’t you remember?”

            Behind them both, Vexen was struggling with something and the moans were getting louder. 

            “Xaldin, help me!”  Vexen sounded strained. 

            Cursing inwardly, Xaldin tensed and then lunged as Xigbar sprang.  He caught the Freeshooter in midair and brought him down to the floor.  Naturally, Xigbar resisted, but Xaldin was far more powerful and quickly pinned him. 

            “You _promised_ , Xigbar.  And you _are_ going to _keep_ your promise…”  Xaldin looked around and then finally tugged at the chain of his coat until it loosened and came off in his hands.  He quickly tied Xigbar’s wrists together so tightly that the cord dug into the skin.  It probably would have drawn blood if Xigbar had been capable of bleeding. 

            “…Even if I have to force you to.” 

            Xaldin stood up again, hoping that the makeshift restraint would keep Xigbar at bay long enough.  He turned to Vexen.

            The experiment was clearly not going as the Chilly Academic had intended. 

            The creature had risen from the table and was stumbling around the laboratory.  Every movement was stiff and disjointed and awkward, like a child just learning to walk.  It grabbed at the tables and counters, knocking countless beakers and flasks and instruments to the ground.  Vexen tried to restrain it, but found that the creature’s strength was double that of either Sora or Roxas’.  He couldn’t control it.

            “Grab it!”  Vexen yelled to Xaldin.  “Before it wrecks the entire lab!”

            “Too la-ate…” 

            Both Xaldin and Vexen ignored Xigbar’s taunting, sing-song voice.  They had more pressing things to worry about.

            The Lancer lunged for the hybrid creature, but it threw him aside with surprising ease.  Xaldin crashed into a cabinet and landed on the floor amid a shower of glass. 

            “What have you done to me!?” 

            The terrifying, alternating voice ricocheted off the walls.  Sora’s words rang with fear, Roxas’ with rage.  Vexen darted around, seeking to seize the more volatile and expensive of the instruments and vials before the rebelling experiment could destroy them.  With a grunt, Xaldin pushed himself up off the glass-littered floor and lunged once again at the creature.  This time, he caught it from behind and brought it down.  It struggled, clawing at the slick fabric of the coat, but Xaldin managed to keep a grip on it.  

            “ _What have you done to me_?!”  It was screaming now as it flailed and clawed at everything that it could reach.  Fingernails dug into Xaldin’s arm even though the coat, tearing the flesh.  

            “ _What did you do_?!”  The creature thrashed and twisted in Xaldin’s grasp, raking its fingers across Xaldin’s face. 

            “Vexen, if it isn’t too much fucking trouble…”  Xaldin shoved the hybrid down and muscled it so that its arms were held tightly behind its back. 

            “I’m _coming_.”  Vexen’s voice rang with feigned impatience as he made his way across the wreckage.  He held a metal pole in his hands, which he intended to use to knock the creature unconscious.  It was a good plan and probably would have worked if Xigbar’s bloodlust hadn’t chosen that moment to break free of his control.

            How could he have resisted, after all?  The Soroxas looked like such a fun thing to hunt… And so _tasty_.

            It happened before Xaldin and Vexen even realized it.  One moment, Xigbar had been lying in restraints on the floor and the creature was in Xaldin’s arms.  The next, Xaldin and Vexen were both sprawled on the floor as Xigbar threw himself at the creature.  His greater weight shoved the hybrid back so that it crashed into the wall behind it, shattering yet another glass cabinet. 

            Unprepared for the sudden assault, Soroxas fell heavily to the floor.  Xigbar was upon it in a moment, pulling it back up to its feet and pinning it up against the wall.  Madness gleamed in his eye and his breath came fast and heavy between teeth that were bloodstained and clenched in a fierce carnivore’s grin.  His eye darted back and forth between the two halves, delighting in the simultaneous sight of Roxas’ rage and Sora’s terror. 

            “Xigbar!”  It was Roxas’ voice that cried out to him.  He had seen for himself the results of Xigbar’s blood-madness and lust for carnage.  He knew what was to happen next.  The next words were Sora, who could see Roxas’ memories through their connected brain.  “Don’t…”

            But Xigbar was deaf to any kind of plea and dumb to the anguish of others.  The tips of his fingers dug with surprising force into the creature’s slim shoulders.  Bruises rose on Sora’s skin, but Roxas remained smooth and pale.  It would never change. 

            “Looks like bein’ whole ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.” 

            Their eyes were so pretty.  Xigbar had taken notice of their eyes before, of course, but he hadn’t ever really stopped and _thought_ about it before this very moment.  They were just so _blue_.  He wondered if they would taste like blueberries.  Or sky. 

            Only one way to find out.

            Xigbar’s teeth were on the creature’s face in moments, biting down ferociously on the smooth curve of one cheekbone.  He jerked his head back sharply and half of its face disappeared down his throat.  Blood poured from Sora’s side and the hybrid creature screamed.  Each syllable of the undulating scream was in a different voice. 

            The eye itself was next.  The corner’s of Xigbar’s mouth were stretched tight into a smile as he hooked his bottom teeth into the creature’s left eye socket – Sora’s side.  Red and white and yellow liquid filled up the ripped-open eye and gushed down the creature’s torn face, even dripping into its open, still-screaming mouth.  Xigbar licked up the vile fluids with an eager tongue and sucked the remainder out of the punctured eye itself.  With deft fingers, he tore out what remained of the eye and popped it into his mouth.  He rolled it around with his tongue, savoring the clean taste and texture of the membranes on the otherwise slick surface of the eye.  A sudden sadistic, playful thought sprang up in his mind and he grinned at the creature.  He opened his mouth to reveal the eyeball resting on his tongue, staring back at the boy to whom it had once belonged. 

            At the grotesque sight, the creature’s knees buckled and it would have fallen to the floor if Xigbar had not been holding it up.

            “C’mon, aren’t you gonna at least give me a fight?”  He swallowed the eyeball and grinned at it.  “Or is that it?”

            Out of the corner of his one remaining eye, Xigbar noticed that Roxas’ hand had begun to move and slip into that all-too-familiar position – it was going to summon a keyblade. 

            “Not this time.”  Xigbar remembered more about keyblades than Sora or Roxas would probably ever know.  He was having far too good a time to let one interfere in his fun now. 

            It was a simple matter to grab the creature’s hands and bite off all of the slim fingers one by one.  It was even simpler to rip open the creature’s chest along the seam and reach inside the cadaver for the heart, much like a bear reaching into a beehive for honey.  At this point, the creature had ceased to scream and struggle and remained limp and silent and half torn-apart on the floor. 

            Bodies weren’t nearly as fun when they weren’t alive and wriggling and begging for mercy, but Xigbar wasn’t picky.  Especially not about one that tasted so very very good.  He fell upon the creature’s cadaver on the floor like a starved beast, rending and tearing and gulping chunks of flesh (both bloody and blood-less) down his throat. 

            From the once neatly-stitched body spilled forth organs that were dry and cold and organs that were slick and wet.  They mixed together indiscriminately on the floor amid the blood and bile and shards of glass.  Xigbar sat among this wreckage with the body pulled into his lap.  He ripped out Xaldin’s meticulous stitches and pried part the two halves of the skull. 

            The brain was still slightly warm and was easily slurped down Xigbar’s throat.  He didn’t even need to chew. 

            Once the conjoined bodies of the Nobody and Other no longer held any interest for Xigbar, he turned instead to the two frozen halves that still remained intact.  All of his favorite parts had been eaten from the first two, but he found that the killing lust was still coursing through his body.  He couldn’t possibly stop now. 

            Oh Xaldin and Vexen would probably be furious when they woke up, but what were they going to do?  He already had a large percentage of both Sora and Roxas in his belly and nothing they could do could change that.  Xigbar smirked to himself as he sucked the blood out from under his fingernails.  He did so love experimentation. 

 

~

 

            When Xaldin rose again, the first thing he saw was Xaldin crouched over the two bodies on the table, his face deep in Roxas’ remaining chest cavity.  He grunted as he pushed himself to his feet and glared at the cannibal.

            “Xigbar, give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now.” 

            “’cause you won’t have anyone to fuck you.”  Xigbar didn’t even look up from where he was ripping out one of Roxas’ lungs with his teeth.  He sat back on his heels and grinned over at Xaldin.  “Deny it.”

            “Get the fuck off of that table and get Vexen.  Don’t take another bite or I’ll rip out your other eye.”  Xaldin looked around at all the wreckage. 

            “What’re you gonna do to me if I don’t?” 

            “Don’t.  Try.  Me.  You’re already in enough trouble.”  Xaldin surveyed the four half-eaten corpses strewn around the room. 

            “Oh _fine_.”  Xigbar hopped off the counter and walked over to where Vexen was still groaning on the floor.

 

            A few minutes later, when all three of the Nobodies were once again standing, Vexen looked around at the mess with an icy, impassive eye. 

            “Well.  One experiment completely ruined.”

            “Sorry, Vexen.”  Even if he could have been apologetic, Xigbar wouldn’t have been. 

            “I’m sure.”  Vexen crossed his arms across his chest.

            “You know, it could be remade.”  Xaldin looked down at the bodies.  “There’s still enough between the four halves that we could attempt a second try.”

            “Really?”  The Academic came over to inspect the bodies for himself.  “Hm.  I suppose we could.  If certain people would cease interfering.”  At this point, he looked sideways at Xigbar.  “If we continue, you are going to be restrained.  Heavily.”

            “Tell me something I don’t know."

 

            It was some time before they were ready to try the experiment again.  The mess made by the first attempt had to be cleaned and all of the still-viable parts gathered for use in round two.  A new way of restraining Xigbar had to be implemented.  That by itself took a fair amount of time since Xigbar was notoriously good at getting out of any sort of restraints.  Xaldin knew that there wasn’t a perfect method of restraining Xigbar, as he could literally bend space and escape at his leisure.  However, Xaldin knew that there wasn’t anything that he could _really_ do unless Xigbar just decided to behave. 

            _The chances of **that** happening are next to nil, but stranger things have happened._

            Between Xaldin and Vexen’s efforts (and Xigbar occasionally chiming in to arrogantly inform them that “That’s not tight enough.  I’ll get out of that in two seconds.”), they managed to restrain Xigbar in such a way that satisfied all three of them.  His wrists were tied together and behind him and his ankles were similarly shackled.  A collar had been placed around his neck and fastened to the wall with a heavy chain.  But all of that wasn’t enough for Vexen.

            “I want you to sew his mouth shut.”

            Xaldin turned and looked at Vexen for a long, hard moment.  The academic didn’t respond in any way – he just looked back at Xaldin with his expressionless eyes.

            “No.” 

            “It’s the only way to ensure that he’s not going to destroy our project _again_.” 

            “Not really.  I could just rip out the stitches.”  Xigbar grinned over at them.

            “Shut up.”  Xaldin growled at him, then looked back at Vexen.  “I’m not going to do it.”

            “You’re known as the most sadistic out of all of us and you’re unwilling to sew your _lover’s_ mouth shut?”  Vexen raised a brow and continued acidly, “Is it because you have a soft spot for him or is it because the idea turns you on and you won’t resist being able to fuck him right here in the middle of the floor?”

            The Lancer’s eyes bored into Vexen’s but he didn’t answer.  Correctly, Vexen guessed that he would in fact be more turned on and shrugged.

            “Fuck him on your own time.  I don’t care.  I just want to get this accomplished.”

            “Give me the needle.”

            Vexen handed Xaldin the curved needle and black thread that he had previously used to stitch up the hybrid creature.  With these in hand, Xaldin turned to where Xigbar was sitting on the floor, chained to the wall.

            “Vexen’s got you all figured out, Xally.”  Xigbar bared his teeth in a grin up at his lover.

            “Shut up and keep your damn mouth closed.”  Xaldin crouched down and slid a hand under Xigbar’s chin, forcing him to look up.  He threaded the needle and pressed the tip against Xigbar’s lower lip, pausing for a few seconds before he punctured the skin.

            It must have hurt like hell, but Xigbar sat still and hummed a tuneless little song as Xaldin methodically began to sew his mouth shut.  Black bars of thread criss-crossed his full lips and pressed them together.  When Xaldin was one, he sat back and looked critically at Xigbar.

            “Try to open your mouth.”

            Xigbar obeyed.  The threads stretched tight and pulled at the holes as he worked his jaw.  If he had still been human, blood would have been gushing from the holes, soaking the threads, dripping into his mouth and down his chin and to the floor.  But as it were, the fact that there was no blood and no apparent pain made the scene even more inhumane.

            “That’s enough.  Now sit there and don’t try anything.” 

            Xigbar just blinked up at Xaldin and grinned, the threads pulling at his lips.  The Lancer turned away and walked back over to Vexen. 

            “So how are we going to do this?”

            “The parts we originally used are largely destroyed.  We may be able to use scraps from them, but we’ll have to primarily use parts from the halves that we didn’t use.  He seems to have left most of those intact.”

            “Fine.  But we can’t just sew two halves together.  He ate the heart.”  Xaldin paused.  “I’m assuming he ate the heart.  Did you, Xigbar?”

            “Mmmmmmm…”

            A shiver went up Xaldin’s spine upon hearing Xigbar’s low moan.  The temptation to go back over and bite Xigbar’s lips until the stitches ripped was so strong.  But like Vexen said, on his own time.

            “He ate the heart.”  Xaldin repeated softly. 

            “Of _course_ he ate the heart,” Vexen replied irritably.  “We’ll just have to combine the pieces of the remaining parts and do what we can.  I’ll salvage parts and you start putting them back together.”

            Xaldin glanced over his shoulder and gave Vexen a distasteful look.  Of course, he got the _really_ messy job.  Vexen loved to talk big about the pursuit of science and all that, but when it came down to it, he really disliked getting his hands dirty.  This is why Xaldin hadn’t ever, in life or as a Nobody, respected Vexen as a scientist.

            The work was long and grueling.  It was difficult to assemble the assorted slabs of meat that Vexen placed on the table, even despite the fact that Xaldin was an expert on anatomy.  The pieces were often little more than scraps of skin.  Luckily, Xigbar hadn’t eaten the bones, although most of them had obviously been chewed on.  The muscles and innards themselves all had to be stitched back together as well since Xigbar’s rampage had destroyed the interior of the bodies as well as the exterior. 

            _Xigbar certainly did his job well,_ Xaldin thought drily as he used a scalpel to cut the chewed edge off of a piece of skin.  _This is going to take hours._

            It did take hours.  Hours and hours of sewing slick, slimy innards and muscles to each other and then pulling a coat of patchwork flesh on over that.  Xaldin pushed eyes back into the empty sockets and then stood up, feeling his back crack for the second time that day.

            “Finished.  Again.” 

            The finished product was truly a horrifying sight.  From the gnawed bones and slivers of flesh and fragments of gore, the two of them had constructed a body.  From the carnage and gore of utter destruction, they had hewn a new life. 

            And what a life it was.  The boy on the stainless steel table was a monstrosity.  The skin had been stitched together from the remnants of Sora and Roxas’, giving it a patchwork appearance.  Black thread connected thousands of patches of skin, each one just slightly different in hue than the ones surrounding it.  Rows of stitches bisected the face that was a fragmented combination of Roxas’ and Sora’s.  The black lines made the face look like a stained-glass window that had been cracked into dozens of pieces, but had not yet broken. 

            “It’s…” 

            It was rare that Xaldin was at a loss for words, but there were none that could adequately describe what this… _thing_ was.  It was beautiful.  It was grotesque.  It was a miracle.  It was a monster.  It was…

            “Mmmm…” 

            Xigbar’s moan once again interrupted Xaldin’s thoughts.  The cannibal was sitting on his knees, staring hungrily at the proceedings like a starved animal.  His lips were curled into a horrific smile.  The strings that wired his mouth shut were stretched and tugged fiercely at his lips.  The pain would have made most mortals scream, but Xigbar didn’t appear to even register it.

            “Shut up,” growled Xaldin.  It annoyed him that Xigbar found ways to be distracting, even while tied up and mostly mute.

            “It’s almost complete.”  Vexen approached the body, holding a second syringe full of the white-gold liquid.  Xaldin wondered briefly how much of it he had and if Xemnas knew that Vexen had been tampering with his precious Kingdom Hearts.

            “Do you have any clue what’s going to happen when you inject that stuff?”  Xaldin asked as Vexen held the needle up against the creature’s neck.

            “I can only assume that it will come back to life again.  As to its exact temperament and condition, I can only guess.”  Vexen looked over at him.

            “Don’t you think we should play it safe this time and tie it down so that it doesn’t try to kill us again?”

            “There _are_ no more restraints.  Between the creature and your lover, they’ve all been destroyed or rendered useless.”

            “Great.  What if it happens all over again?”

            Vexen squared his shoulders and looked imperiously at Xaldin.

            “The creature should be significantly weakened this time around.  The chances that it’s even half as powerful are extremely unlikely.”

            “You had better be right about this.” 

            Vexen slid the needle into the creature’s neck, injecting the essence of Kingdom Hearts into it. 

            For a few moments, all was still aside from Xigbar’s heavy breathing and the clanking of the chains binding him.  Xaldin and Vexen did not even dare to inhale.

            After a full minute of waiting, there was no change in the creature.  No breathing, no change of color, no movement.  Nothing.

            “Did it work?”  Xaldin turned his sharp eyes to Vexen. 

            “It should have.  There’s no reason why it shouldn’t.”  The academic looked perturbed.  Clearly, he was disappointed.  According to all appearances, the experiment had failed miserably.

            A sudden, muted outburst from Xigbar caused the lancer to turn and look back at him.  Xigbar was straining towards them, his jaw working up and down.  Saliva trickled from between the black threads and down his chin. 

            “What is it?”  Xaldin cursed Vexen for forcing him to sew Xigbar’s mouth shut.  “Do you see something?”

            “Look!”  Vexen’s voice rose.  “Xaldin look!”

            Xaldin turned and saw that the creature’s finger was twitching.  The tip was quivering loosely, despite the tightness of the stitches. 

            “It worked!”  Vexen’s voice, while still toneless, had risen with excitement.  “Look at that!  It worked!”

            The lancer watched quietly, feeling a strange, growing sense of dread.  He had no idea why, but there was something very, very wrong.

            “Vexen, stop.” 

            The academic was leaning down over the creature, studying it critically.  It still hadn’t moved aside from the twitching finger.  In the background, Xigbar was still slavering towards them. 

            “What?”  Vexen glanced up at Xaldin.  “What could possibly be the problem?”

            At that second, the creature’s hand shot up and wrapped itself around Vexen’s throat.  The creature’s eyes popped open at that moment, revealing two mismatched blue eyes – one milky and the other bloodshot and wide.  Taken by surprise, Vexen began to claw at the creature, the table, anything to get away.

            “Xigbar!”  He shouted.

            “Fuck!”  The lancer moved to restrain the creature, but it was far stronger than last time.  It ignored his blows and pushed itself into a sitting position, its grip never loosening on Vexen’s throat.

            Not even Nobodies can survive without air and Vexen was perilously close to losing even his miserable excuse for a life at the hands of the thing he’d just made.  Dimly aware of the fact that Xigbar was tearing at the chains that bound him, Xaldin summoned a spear out of thin air and sliced off one of the hybrid creature’s arms. 

            As the limb fell to the floor, the Soroxas turned to Xaldin, staring blankly at him with its lifeless eyes.  With its remaining arm, it threw Vexen across the room as though he were nothing but a rag doll.

            _What happened_?  Xaldin readied his spear, staring at the thing in front of him.  _Vexen said that it should be weaker, but it’s got to be at least twice as strong as it was before._

            With a groan, Vexen picked himself off the floor where he had landed.  They hadn’t bothered to clean up the blood from the last incident, so it was sticky and smelled strongly of copper.  It had tossed him close to where Xigbar was tied and lunging eagerly against his bindings like a wild dog against a rope. 

            This was going wrong.  It wasn’t supposed to have been like this.  Vexen clenched his teeth.  It wasn’t anger he felt, or even disappointment – he was incapable of feeling them, after all.  But it had all gone wrong!  As a scientist, he felt the sting of failure more strongly than most.  Then again, there was the matter of the failure in question actually attempting to kill him.  This was not acceptable at all.  Xaldin was currently occupying it in some sort of bout of physical combat.  Whatever suited him, Vexen supposed.  He, however, had no intention of staying here where the possibility of death was so high. 

            But what about the creature?  It must be disposed of, to be sure.  Aside from being a failure, it was also highly dangerous and must be kept secret at all costs.  If it didn’t kill them, Xemnas certainly would. 

            Xaldin was faltering, even against a bastard creature with one arm.  Vexen allowed himself a moment of admiration and curiosity – _why_ was it so strong?  What had occurred in the second resurrection process to make it this way?  With a quick shake of the head, Vexen banished those thoughts.  If it was able to kill Xaldin, he was certainly no match for it.  There was nothing to do.

            A sudden flash of brilliance struck Vexen.  Xaldin couldn’t kill it… and he certainly couldn’t… but that was only because of their sense of self-preservation.  All he had to do was find someone who didn’t care about getting hurt. 

            He turned his eyes to Xigbar and grabbed a knife, intending to turn the madman on the murderous hybrid and let the two of them kill each other, but Xigbar was no longer straining against his restraints.  He was utterly still, his one eye staring straight ahead.

            Vexen followed his gaze and found himself staring at a most unnerving sight. 

            The creature had ripped Xaldin’s head from his neck and stood before them now, holding the severed head by the dreadlocks.  The black-coated body lay awkwardly behind it, never to move again. 

            It dropped the head and began to walk towards the remaining Organization members.  In his horror, Vexen had dropped the knife, but he picked it up again and quickly cut the lock of the chains that bound Xigbar.

            “Kill it!”  He screamed at Xigbar.  “Kill it now!”

            But Xigbar did not move.  He seemed unable to.  His entire body quivered and his mouth was stretched in a grin so wide that the threads were in danger of cutting through his lips.  His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. 

            “What the _fuck_ are you waiting for?!  Kill it!”  Vexen was beginning to feel nervous again.  If Xigbar wasn’t going to kill it, they were all going to die.

            Without warning, Xigbar moved.  No, he didn’t move.  He was simply not there one moment and there the next.  His teeth were at the creature’s legs, ripping out stitches and skin and muscle, then the arms, then the chest, almost too quickly for the eye to follow.  The creature was almost as fast, knocking Xigbar away with surprising speed and strength.

            Vexen stared at the spectacle, horrified and yet intrigued.  He wished that it were possible to stage such a display of combat and get real stats and information.  The data would be invaluable….

            But there were footsteps approaching from the outside.

            “Xigbar!”  He shrieked.  “We have to leave!  Come on!” 

            Xigbar jumped away from the creature and crouched on the table like a wild animal.  It was fun, yes, a fun fight.  A good fight.  A didn’t-have-anything-to lose fight.  The best kind of fight.  He bared his teeth for another round, tasting the strange, diluted coppery blood on his teeth.  The creature, with its mangled legs, wobbled unsteadily, but still stared straight at him. 

            “Xigbar!”  Vexen edged near the cannibal.  Normally, he would just leave Xigbar to fight with this thing to his content, but whoever was approaching would find out about this and he couldn’t afford to let anything jeopardize his chances of getting out of this unscathed.  If he left Xigbar, there was a chance that Xigbar would survive and reveal everything.  With Xaldin’s body here, there was a handy scapegoat.  Getting as close as he dared, he seized the sniper by one of the trailing chains and yanked him back.  “Stop, you idiot!”  With his other hand, he opened a portal and pulled them both inside.  Less than a second later, the laboratory was silent.

           

            Axel slowly opened the door to the laboratory.  It had been locked, of course, but melting locks was old-hat at this point.  It was dark in here, but it definitely had that “Roxas” feel that he’d been following for the last six fucking hours.  If Larxene had kidnapped him and tied him up down here just as another one of her sick jokes, he was going to be pissed.  He was annoyed that Roxas was having his little “vacation” in Twilight Town too, but he wasn’t about to do something that asshole-ish.

            The front half of the lab was dark, almost like someone had broken the lights.  Axel stepped inside and heard the crunch of broken glass under his feet.  There was also a peculiar smell in the air – an acrid smell, like a bunch of spilt chemicals, but with a familiar, coppery smell mixed in there too. 

            “What the hell _is_ that?”  Axel asked aloud as he crossed the floor, his boots crushing the broken glass underfoot.  “Guess the cleaning Nobodies have the day off.”  He cracked jokes to nobody in particular.

            Axel realized that he’d spoken too soon once he reached the section of the lab that was still lit.

            It was a display of total and utter chaos.  Equipment and furniture lay everywhere, upturned and most broken beyond any repair.  Beakers and vials of chemicals had been shattered or destroyed and their contents had spilled everywhere.  Papers were strewn about and all around, there was wreckage.  But the shock of that was nothing compared to the horror of the blood that covered _everything_.  It had been splashed on the walls, the ceiling, the tables and it coated the floor. 

            “What the _fuck_?”  Axel’s voice was strangely hoarse.  “What _happened_ here?”

            His eyes traveled over everything.  He wouldn’t normally be so shocked, but there was that _feeling_ – the one he got whenever he was around Roxas.  Why would he have that feeling if Roxas weren’t here or hadn’t been here?  Suddenly, he caught sight of a body.  A _headless_ body.

            “Holy shit!”  Axel ran over to it, staring with utter horror.  He’d seen bodies before and killed his share of them, but never one without a _head_.  “What the _hell_?”

            It was Xaldin.  Axel found his head nearby a few moments later and sat on the ground, staring at them.  He was trying to comprehend what he was seeing, but his head just wouldn’t accept what his eyes were telling him. 

            “Something came in here… and wrecked the lab… and managed to kill Xaldin.  Shit, I hope Xigbar doesn’t find out while I’m around.  And where the hell is Roxas in all this?”  He was beginning to feel anxious.

            “Aaaaaa….kssssss…lllllll…”

            A guttural voice hissed from the dark.  A shudder of sheer horror ran up Axel’s spine and he found himself momentarily paralyzed. 

            Something crawled slowly out of the dark in front of Axel. 

            It was a monster.  Pieces of flesh hung from a mutilated, patchwork body, dangling by black thread or by thin pieces of gore.  Blonde and brunette hair spotted the scalp and hung in lank sections, crusty with blood.  A face that Axel had once known so well stared out at him from the patches of skin on the thing’s face.  It leaned heavily on one arm and dragged the remains of its legs behind it.

            “Aaaaaaaaaaks…llll…”  It moved towards him, reaching out with its stump of an arm.

            Axel’s eyes were wide and he found that he couldn’t move.  He was paralyzed.  What was this thing?  It wasn’t Roxas….  It couldn’t be Roxas… 

            “R…Rox…” 

            But it was too much for Axel to even say the name.  He felt his body rebel against him and he hunched over, vomiting the contents of his stomach violently onto the bloody floor.  Even when his stomach was empty, he continued to dry-heave, convulsions wracking his body.

            “Aaaaakslllll…”  It began to move closer.

            Axel knew at that moment that he couldn’t let it touch him.  He began to scramble to his feet, slipping on his own vomit and falling again.

            “No, get away from me!”  He shouted at it, pushing himself backwards.  “Don’t get near me!”

            But the hybrid continued on, undeterred.  It clawed at the floor with the one hand that remained.  The stitches that held the fingertips onto the rest loosened and a few of them fell off, rolling in circles on the floor around the deformed hand.  Even with only bloody stumps, the hybrid continued to pull itself towards Axel.

            A burst of adrenaline, fueled by Axel’s horror, surged through the Flurry and he kicked at the hybrid, scrambling to his feet.  Glass cut into his hands, but he didn’t even seem to notice.  With blood and vomit all over his coat, he pulled himself over the piles of wreckage and stumbled as fast as he could towards the door.  He heard it moaning behind him.

            “Aaaaaaaaaaaaakslllll….  Aaaaaksssssssssssssslllll…”

            The sound of its voice made him want to vomit again, but Axel didn’t stop until he had thrown himself through the door and slammed it shut behind him.  The lock was broken, but that didn’t seem to even register in his mind as he pawed at it fruitlessly for a moment and then leaned back against the door.  Slowly, he slid down until he was sitting on the floor against it.  Axel held his head in his hands, his wide eyes peering through his gloved fingers.  He was only vaguely aware that there was still vomit on his face and that he was shaking.  There was horror behind that door.  The horror of something gone terribly, terribly wrong. 

 

 ~

 

            The usually-aggravating confusion of Betwixt and Between provided a welcome haven to Vexen.  He leaned heavily against a wall, trying desperately to collect his thoughts.  Everything that had just happened continued to make his mind reel.  What was there to do now? 

            About ten feet away stood Xigbar.  Unlike Vexen, he was standing straight and showed no sign of bewilderment at all.  In fact, the fact that his hands were slack and twitching at his sides and that his eyes stared with an eerie intensity at nothing at all should have gravely concerned Vexen.  Under normal circumstances, it would have.  But right now the Academic was too preoccupied to notice the warnings signs.

            “The most vital thing is to remain calm and consider the next action logically.”  Vexen had recovered and was beginning to pace.  He ticked thoughts off on his fingers as he muttered them aloud.  “The creature is still alive in there.  Of course, it isn’t alive in the usual sense, but medically speaking…  None of the other members of the Organization yet know about this.  Aside from Xigbar.  Xaldin’s dead – no need to worry about him, but Xigbar might pose a problem…”  Vexen didn’t even bother to lower his voice as he spoke.  He didn’t consider Xigbar aware enough to be a threat. 

            But at the sound of Xaldin’s name, a great tremor went through Xigbar’s body.  He turned slowly to face Vexen, his lone eye wide and not a trace of a smile on his sewn mouth.  His face twitched uncontrollably.  Vexen didn’t notice Xigbar walking up behind him as he continued to muse to himself. 

            Within a second, the Freeshooter’s hands were around his throat and squeezing with a strength that defied his long, brittle-looking fingers. 

            “What are you doing?!”  Vexen clawed at the strangling hands, but he was powerless against Xigbar’s powerful grip.  He felt fear claw its way up his back and a cold sweat break out all over his body.  Fear was technically an emotion, yes, but the gut instinct of fight-or-flight was centered deep in an organism’s brain, not their heart.  Right now, every fiber of Vexen was screaming at him to get away.

            Was Xigbar faking his cold, palpable rage or was it real?  It was impossible to tell either way.  It certainly looked real – the madness in his otherwise empty eye certainly was.  He dug his fingers into Vexen’s throat, tilting his own head down until his stitched lips were just brushing Vexen’s cloaked shoulder.  But he didn’t bite.  He didn’t bite.  He didn’t growl.  He didn’t laugh or even speak as his fingers dug deeper into Vexen’s throat.  Breaking the skin was the difficult part.  Once penetrated and ripped open, Vexen stopped struggling.  But he remained alive for a little while longer – long enough for Xigbar to begin silently peeling his skin off.

            The cannibal started at the throat. With his long fingers, he tore the skin from Vexen’s throat in a circular motion, like peeling the skin from an apple.  Vexen gurgled as the color drained from his face and the air that he so desperately gasped escaped through his throat without ever getting to his lungs.  Once he had removed all of the skin from the throat, Xigbar held Vexen’s corpse up by the hair, studying him.  His head lolled on his skinned neck like a baby bird’s.  His lifeless eyes were glassy.  Xigbar touched them, sliding his fingertips over the still-slick surface of the eyeball.  When Vexen didn’t even blink, Xigbar dropped him.  He was of no interest now.

            Xigbar turned away from Vexen’s body and stared into nothing.  Xaldin was dead.  Dead and gone.  Dead as a doornail.  His head was sitting ten feet away from his body.  He wasn’t going to wake up.  But there were others.  Vexen had already been punished, yes…  The others needed to be punished too.  He reached into his sleeve and found a scalpel that he had hidden there earlier.  With it, he carved the number V into his throat.  The wound was clean and bloodless, but it still gaped horrifyingly.  Xigbar put the scalpel back into his coat.  That was one.  Now to find some of the others.

 

~

 

            “Hey.” 

            Axel was roused none-too-gently from a deep sleep by a sharp kick to the ribs.  Combined with the pain already in his stomach from all the vomiting and dry-heaving he had already done earlier, it was an incredibly rude awakening.  He groaned and curled around the dull ache.  He was too dizzy and sick with pain and grief to wonder who was waking him or even how he had fallen asleep in the first place.

            The kick came again.  “Get up.  I’m talking to you.” 

            “Stop fucking kicking me!”  Axel snapped.  He pushed himself up with a grunt and glared blearily up at whoever had woken him up.

            He found himself looking up at a guy wearing a black cloak.  This wasn’t unusual since everyone around here wore black cloaks, but Axel was still surprised.  This guy wasn’t one of theirs.  Axel could tell each and every one of the other Organization members even with their hoods up just because of their build and posture and bearing.  This guy, whoever he is, wasn’t in the Organization.

            “The fuck are you?”  Axel wished he had time to summon his chakrams.  More importantly, he wished that his head and his stomach would stop trying to rebel against him. 

            “You’re not the one to be asking questions.”  The hooded figure held a strange sword to Axel’s throat.  It was shaped like a bat’s wing, but colored red and blue.  “What are you doing down here?”

            Everything suddenly came flooding back.  The horror of what he had seen behind that door. The room of rubble and blood.  The headless body.  The… the _monster_ that had called his name.  Axel turned away again, afraid that he was going to be sick.  A gloved hand seized his hair and yanked him back.

            “Look at me.  What are you doing down here?”  The cloaked man repeated the question.

            “I… I opened the door…  Lemme go, I’m gonna be sick.”  Axel shoved the hands away and leaned against the wall.  He felt completely pitiful. 

            The cloaked man let him go, disgusted. 

            “You’re Axel, right?  You’re the one that DiZ told me to be worried about?  That’s pathetic.

            “Hey, you’d feel the same way if you saw the shit I did,” snapped Axel. 

            “I’m more interested in why you’re down here.  And what you know about Sora.” 

            Axel glanced up at the guy in black.  Something sparked in his memory and he blinked as understanding dawned upon him.

            “Wait a minute…  You’re that Riku kid!  The one that’s been lookin’ all over for Sora.” 

            Riku pushed back his hood.  It wasn’t surprising that Axel had recognized him.  After all, all of the Organization had become intimately familiar with Riku over the course of brutalizing him.  The faint outlines of a few bruises still marred his jaw and a shiny white scar on one of his temples served as a reminder of the experience.

            “If you know anything about Sora, tell me now.  I’m not interested in you.”

            Axel’s face twitched.  The thing…  It had been Sora too, hadn’t it?  In his horror, Axel hadn’t even thought about it being anything other than some kind of awful Roxas monster. 

            “Just forget about him.  You don’t wanna know.”  In a rare moment of seriousness, Axel stared up at Riku with hollow eyes.  Riku was the enemy, but Axel wouldn’t have wished his experience in that room on anyone, not even his greatest rival.

            “Easy for you to say, Nobody.  You don’t have a heart.  You don’t even know what it feels like to miss someone.” 

            The words should have cut Axel to the bone.  Well, they would have if he had a heart.  Either way, Axel watched as Riku walked over to the door that held the horror.  The lock had been melted off and Axel had broken one of the hinges in his attempt to get away. 

            “What happened here?”  Asked Riku.

            “I already told you that you don’t wanna know.” 

            With effort, Axel pushed himself up and walked over to the door.  He placed a hand on the door as if to hold it closed.  In reality, he didn’t even want to get near it. 

            “Look, I’ve seen some seriously messed up shit in my lifetime, but you _really_ don’t wanna open that door.  Hell, I don’t even know why I’m still down here.  I want to be as far away from this thing as I can.”

            Riku pushed Axel away roughly. 

            “I’ve got no reason to listen to anything you say,” snapped Riku.  “You’re probably not even telling the truth anyways.  You’re a Nobody.  You’re nothing _but_ a lie.”

            Axel’s face hardened.  “Hey, if you wanna open that door, you be my guest.  I just don’t want _it_ to get out and come after me again.  I don’t give a damn what happens to you.”

            “Then get out of my way.”

            The Flurry was only too happy to oblige.  He pulled away from the door and began to walk down the hall.  Fuck if he cared about what happened to Riku at this point.  Let him get ripped apart.  It was one less person for Axel to kill later on anyways.

            Riku studied the door.  The lock had been melted off and the hinges broken (both Axel’s handiwork, if his guess was correct), but it had firmly been shoved back into the doorframe.  He didn’t doubt that there was something behind that door that Axel had wanted to get away from, but he had a dim view of the Nobody’s sensibilities.  After all, Riku had seen the depths of darkness.  He was sure that there was nothing behind that door that could scare him.

            The reek of decaying flesh and festering vomit assaulted Riku’s senses the instant that he entered the room.  His hand went automatically to cover his nose and mouth and he squinted through watering eyes.  The smell made them burn horribly.

            _Some old experiment must be rotting in here…_   Riku wrinkled his nose and looked around. 

            The interior of the room was nearly pitch black, but that wasn’t a problem for Riku.  After all, part of being a creature of darkness was being able to see in it.  The room had been utterly demolished by someone or something.  Furniture, shelves, bottles, books were strewn everywhere, all of it destroyed.  Countless machines and tools were gutted and mangled and scattered about as though in celebration.  One of the lights overhead flickered on and off at random intervals and sent a shower of sparks below. 

            “This place was destroyed for sure, but there’s nothing in here.  Nothing that Axel should be afraid of, anyways.”  Riku kicked at an overturned table.

            The resounding silence was so loud and so eerie that Riku felt chills run up his spine.  He shifted his weight and looked around again, beginning to feel a touch of nervousness.  Maybe Axel hadn’t just been talking crazy. 

            “What the HELL is going on here?”  He finally yelled out of sheer anxiety. 

            There was another moment of silence, then there was the sound of something moving… slowly… in the dark.

            “Reeeeeeeee… kuuuuuuuuuu?”

 

~

           

            Axel had started walking and had gotten several corridors away after Riku had walked into the room.  He had warned the kid not to go in there, hadn’t he?  That was the most he could be expected to do.  Hell, Axel was surprised that he’d even done that.  It wasn’t like him to try to warn someone _against_ walking into their potential doom, especially not someone like Riku.  Riku was the enemy, right?

            But a sudden distant sound made Axel stop in his tracks and listen.  The sound of running, then a grinding shriek, like metal against metal.  Then silence. 

            “Kid?”  Axel turned around and stared down the empty hall.  When there was no answer after several long seconds, he called again.  “Hey.  Riku!” 

            Yet again, there was no answer. 

            “Mother fucker.” 

            Before Axel even knew what he was doing, he was half-running down the hall back towards the door that he had vowed never to return to.  He skidded to a stop as he rounded a corner and came face to face with yet another sight he had never expected to see.

            Riku was crouched outside of the door with one shoulder still pressed hard against it.  His back was to Axel but it was easy to see that his shoulders were heaving.  His arms were up, as though he were holding his face in his hands.  There was something… sunken about Riku’s posture.  He seemed as though he had heavy weights chained to him that were pulling him down. 

            “…Kid?”  Axel stopped several paces away, reluctant to get even that close to the door.  Riku did not move nor respond. 

            “Riku?”  He used Riku’s name this time, hoping that it might get an answer. 

            There was nothing at first.  Then Axel gradually became aware of a soft sound, a low rush of air.  The hairs stood up on the back of his neck as he realized what it was – the sound of a scream forced through a throat too hoarse to utter it.

            Shoving his horror into the pit of his stomach, Axel walked forward the few paces that separated them and circled around to face Riku. 

            “Oh _fuck_ ,” he breathed low.

            Blood was trickling from Riku’s eyes – no, it was _pouring_.  It cascaded down his cheeks and dripped off his jaw and some of it ran in red rivulets down the curve of his throat to disappear beneath the collar of the black coat.  He was holding his hands to his eyes in an attempt to staunch the blood, but it flowed unchecked through his fingers.  His mouth was open in the silent scream.

            Axel stood paralyzed for a moment, his body reeling as though he had been the one to see the horror for the first time.  The memory of it turned his stomach sour and it lurched as though he were going to dry-heave again, but he forced it to settle. 

            “Riku, listen to me.”  He crouched down and grabbed the kid’s wrists.  Blood was pooling on the floor around the two of them – Axel could feel it soaking through the knees of his pants.  “I’m gonna try to help you, okay?  Holy shit this is so much blood.  Okay, Riku, listen to me.  You have to let me see your eyes.  Okay?  Put your hands down, kid.”

            “I saw...”  Riku finally stopped screaming and found his voice after taking several long, shuddering breaths.  It was little more than a ragged whisper.  “I _saw_ …”

            “I know you saw, kid…”  Axel was incapable of sympathy, but he softened his voice anyhow.  His grip around Riku’s wrists tightened.  “Trust me, I know.  But look, you’re gonna fuckin’ bleed to death unless we fix this, so listen to me.  You _have got to show me your eyes_.”

            Slowly, Riku allowed Axel to pull his hands away from his face.  Immediately, the outpouring of blood somehow doubled, although Axel could scarcely believe that there was any more blood in Riku’s body at all.

            “Look up, kid.”  Axel put a hand under Riku’s chin and forced his head up.  He immediately wished that he hadn’t.

            The kid’s eyes were utterly white – no iris nor pupil or any color at all save for the bright red veins that splintered across the surface of the eye like cracks in a mirror.  His sight had been shattered.  Blood continued to gush. 

            “ _Fuck_.” 

            It wasn’t the most original thing to say, but Axel’s mind was incapable of thinking of anything else to utter.  He stared at the sight for a few moments before he got his wits back enough to react.

            “Okay, we’ve gotta get you some help.  You’re gonna bleed to death if we don’t do something about all that blood.”  He hesitantly took Riku’s gloved hands in his own.  This was the enemy, the logical part of his brain screamed at him.  I shouldn’t be helping him.  I have no obligation to.

            But he and Riku were linked now.  Inescapably so.  Whether they wanted it or not, they were linked by the fact that they had both looked behind the door and seen what was behind it.  Neither one of them was going to be the same again.

            Just thinking about the door made Axel shudder.  That was another thing…

            “…I don’t know if you did anything to… uh… _it_ … but we should probably get out of here.  Away from it.  As soon as possible.”

            Axel was babbling.  He _knew_ he was babbling, but it made him feel better to hear a voice, any voice, and Riku was obviously in no condition to talk.

            But at the mention of the door and what lay behind it, Riku’s expression melted and reformed into something that resembled determination.  He tightened his grip on Axel’s hands. 

            Axel pulled him up, trying not to look at the blood that was _still_ gushing from Riku’s eyes.  There was no way that the kid was human – he’d lost enough blood for two people already and he was still standing. 

            “I dunno if I’ve got the energy to get us out of the castle, but I can get us to a different floor… That ought to be good enough unless that thing knows how to portal.”  Axel shuddered just thinking about it. 

            Summoning a portal was usually just second nature to all of the members of the Organization XIII, but by the time Axel pulled Riku through the other end of the portal into a new hallway, he felt exhausted all over again. Sweat poured from his face and dripped onto the tile floor. 

            “Okay so… not quite where I wanted, but close enough, I guess.”  Axel sank down to his knees, half-dropping Riku in the process.  “Fuck… I shouldn’t be feeling like this.”

            Either way, a huge surge of relief flooded through Axel.  They weren’t out of the woods yet, but at least they were comparatively safer here than just one wall away from that fucking… _thing_.

            “First thing’s first.  We’ve _got_ to do somethin’ about those eyes.  The infirmary’s around here, but this’ll work for a quick fix…”  Axel ripped a long strip of fabric from the hem of his coat and tied it around Riku’s eyes like a blindfold.  Blood continued to trickle from beneath the makeshift bandage, but at least it wasn’t as disconcerting that way.  “Whenever you start talkin’ again, you and I are going to have a conversation about why your eyeballs exploded.  I guess it’s not too surprising considering that you saw the… the… _thing_ , but…”

            “What is it?”

            The first words out of Riku’s mouth were low and hushed, his voice cracked and hoarse.  The sound made Axel jump badly.  His nerves were still shot from earlier, but he was glad that Riku was awake now. 

            “ _Fuck_ , kid.  Don’t do that to me.”  Axel moved to sit back, but Riku grabbed his wrist.

            “Don’t,” he croaked.  “I can’t see.  Don’t move away.” 

            Axel stilled and let Riku hold onto him.  It was weird.  He wasn’t used to being _depended_ on and frankly he wasn’t sure if he liked it.  There was no reason for him to like it – he and Riku weren’t friends or anything.  But they had a bond now whether Axel liked it or not. 

            “What is it?”  Riku asked again, tightening his grip.  “What _was_ it?”

            Axel was unable to answer right away.  What could he say?  He didn’t even want to think about it, but he couldn’t just imagine it out of his memory, just like he couldn’t ignore Riku’s calloused fingers around his wrist. 

            “It…”  Uncertainty made him hesitate.  “I think it was Roxas.  And Sora too,” he added as an afterthought.  “They… it was a monster.”

            “Who made them like that?”  Riku’s voice lowered and practically throbbed with anger.  The force in it caused Axel to actually draw back.  It had been so long since he had been able to feel real anger that Riku’s surprised him.

            “I don’t-” 

            The Flurry cut himself off as a new thought washed over him.  Vexen’s lab.  Xaldin’s head.  _They_ must have been the ones to do this. 

            “Vexen.  Xaldin.  And probably Xigbar too.  He and Xaldin do everything together.”

            “Friends of yours?”  Riku hissed.

            Axel glared at him.  “After this?  What the fuck do you think?”  He stood up, leaving Riku on the ground.  “Xaldin’s dead.  You probably saw him in there.  I don’t know what happened to Xigbar and Vexen.  They could be anywhere by now.  If they’re alive, anyways.”

            “Where are you going?”  Riku pushed himself to his feet, keeping one hand against the wall.  It was the only thing that grounded him for now.  “You can’t leave.”

            “The fuck I can’t.  I intend to get the hell out of here as fast as I can.” 

            The Soroxas creature had horrified Axel in ways that he hadn’t been in years.  Decades.  Lifetimes. Not since childhood when the threat of monsters under the bed and in the closet had seemed so terrifyingly real.  The very notion of seeing it again filled him with a dread so physical that it surpassed his heartless condition.  His head knew that his heart couldn’t feel fear, but the rest of his body didn’t.  He had no intention of staying in the castle where the potential of encountering the monster again was even a remote possibility. 

            Upon hearing this, Riku shook his head violently, splattering the still-dripping blood across the wall and Axel’s coat. 

            “You can’t leave,” he repeated.

            “Watch me.”  Axel didn’t realize how cruel his words were, but he wouldn’t have cared even if he had.

            “No, you can’t.”  Riku stared in the direction of Axel’s voice.  “That thing isn’t just a monster.  It’s Sora and Roxas.  You can’t just leave it here.  We have to do something.”

            “Yeah?  What _exactly_ do you propose we do?”  Axel snapped.

            “Put them out of their misery.  Kill them.” 

            The words stopped Axel dead.  He thought about them for a long moment, his memories of having a heart battling with his sense of self-preservation. 

            “You realize that there’s a hell of a good chance that we won’t live through this.” 

            “You don’t have a fucking heart.  What have you got to live for anyways?”

            Axel almost smiled at Riku’s venomous tone. 

            “Nothing, I guess.” 

 

~

 

            Lights flickered haphazardly over the twisted wreckage that had once been the lab, throwing crazy, contorting shadows up on the walls.  Fluids seeped across the floor, some actually eating through it. 

            The air was still, almost ominous.  The only sounds were the slow drip of fluid, the low buzz of electricity and lastly – the sound of low, choked breathing.

            “Aaaaaaaksssllllllllll…”  Roxas’ voice hissed the name, low and acidic.  A lone, sky-blue eye opened and narrowed in the dark. 

            A second eye, this one a darker blue and shot through with red, opened beside the sky-blue one. 

            “Reeeeeeee... kuuuuuuuuu…”  Sora’s voice now broke the silence, more of a moan than Roxas’ furious hiss. 

            The Soroxas began to move in the dark, crawling across broken glass and blood and vomit without even noticing.  They passed Xaldin’s body and then his head without even a glance. 

            They were looking for a door.

            They had been abandoned.  They had reached out… called out… but they had been abandoned.  Axel and Riku.  Riku and Axel.  Both men had abandoned them… Abandoned them to the dark, like a monster.

            They had to be punished.  And Roxas and Sora were going to make them pay.  There was no escape.

            They found the door, stitched fingers feeling for the knob in the dark.  It was locked, bolted from the outside.  They were locked in, but not for long. 

            The Soroxas held out a hand and a keyblade appeared there.  In general size and shape it resembled the Kingdom Key, but it was twisted and corrupted.  The colors were darker, the blade tarnished and rusted.  It seemed to be soldered together roughly of other keyblades, just as Sora and Roxas were now one. 

            They pointed the keyblade at the door.  With a flash of rusty blue light, the door creaked open and the Soroxas pushed it open.  They stepped out of the darkness and into the light.  And onto the hunt. 


End file.
